Saving the Maringa Lopori Wanga Wildlife Corridor

Maringa Lopori Wanga (MLW) is a region in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) immediately south of the Congo River. Within its borders are two major reserves: The Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve and the Luo Scientific Reserve. Wildlife travels between these two reserves via a natural wildlife corridor. However, a main road bisects this wildlife corridor between the two reserves, along which numerous villages have been established over time. If the corridor is to remain open, villagers living along the route need to control sprawl. This is where scientists have joined in to help, by providing detailed satellite imagery of the area, allowing the people of the MLW region to more accurately zone their land for agricultural expansion. By providing accurate satellite zoning maps, the villages can still thrive and the wildlife corridor can remain open, which benefits both the people and the wildlife of this region of the DRC.

Part of NASA's Landsat program mission is to provide tools to assist with global growth and urbanization planning. NASA's Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Program (LCLUC) uses Landsat data to develop socially relevant interdisciplinary science that can be applied to natural resource management questions, starting with agricultural land use change. More information on the varied use of Landsat data can be found at http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/appl_matrix.html

A fully narrated reporter package of this story, incorporating this element, can be seen here.

Animation starting over the entire DRC and zooming down to an overview of the MLW region. The camera then zooms down further to the Wildlife Corridor revealing the Agricultural Zones immediately north and south of the corridor.

Print resolution image of the Wildlife Corridor (depicted in red) with the Agricultural Zones (white outlines) to the North and South of the corridor area. The black lines in this image are roads connecting many of the agricultural areas and villages throughout this region of the MLW.